The 10 Best Selfie Tripods

This wiki has been updated 19 times since it was first published in December of 2015. We think it's time for smartphone photography to move up a notch. Take your Snapchats and Instagram stories beyond selfie sticks and into the world of selfie tripods. They'll let you (and your friends) pose for perfectly stable and well-framed self portraits without having to squeeze into the frame, and work with either your phone's self-timer function or an included remote control.
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This wiki has been updated 19 times since it was first published in December of 2015. We think it's time for smartphone photography to move up a notch. Take your Snapchats and Instagram stories beyond selfie sticks and into the world of selfie tripods. They'll let you (and your friends) pose for perfectly stable and well-framed self portraits without having to squeeze into the frame, and work with either your phone's self-timer function or an included remote control.
When users buy our independently chosen editorial
picks,
we may earn commissions to
help fund the Wiki.
Skip to the best selfie tripod on Amazon.

10. Yoozon 001

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Collapsing all the way down to just 7.75 inches, the Yoozon 001 can fit into a pocket or small handbag when not in use, yet extends to nearly 29 inches when its time to capture group photos or you want to include a lot of the background in a shot.

9. Coman E300l + MT50

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The Coman E300l + MT50 comes in four cool colors and can be used in a variety of different ways: as a selfie stick, a floor-standing tripod, and a table-standing tripod. It can bend up to 90 degrees at the attachment point for even more versatility.

8. ChargerCity Pistol Grip

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The ChargerCity Pistol Grip doesn't have an extendable pole, but it does provide a handy collapsible and sturdy platform for your smartphone or small digital camera when you need it. It will hold your device reliably in just about any position you require.

7. Maono AU Z04

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Whether you are taking photos at a family reunion, on that once in a lifetime adventure to Machu Picchu, or just while while hanging out with friends, the Maono AU Z04 can help. At 46 inches when fully extended, it is easy to get the whole group in a shot.

6. Accmor AC-13TR

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The Accmor AC-13TR features a contoured handle with an ergonomic, nonslip grip perfect for snapping action shots when your hands are sweaty. Its legs can be removed when it is time for handheld use, at which point you can extend the stick up to 50 inches.

5. Benro 3-in-1

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The Benro 3-in-1 is a monopod, tripod, and selfie stick wrapped up into one handy tool. In addition to the phone mount, it comes with a camera mount and a GoPro adapter, so you can use it with virtually any picture or video taking device.

4. KobraTech Mini

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The compact and useful KobraTech Mini makes a great addition to any professional or amateur photographer's bag of tools. The flexible legs can be wrapped around a pole, a tree branch, a fence, and a variety of other objects to facilitate shooting from all angles.

3. Foneso Extendable

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Whether you use it as a handheld stick or with its three legs extended, the Foneso Extendable will help you snap self-portraits or stable landscapes using almost any type or size of smartphone. Its holster locks into place once in position for added security.

2. Square Jellyfish

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As simple as it is effective, the Square Jellyfish doesn't come with myriad attachments or a Bluetooth remote, but it makes up for that with its reliable design. It weighs just 2.6 ounces, yet is stable enough to be used just about anywhere you'd want to take a picture.

1. LifeStyle Designs 4-in-1

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The versatile LifeStyle Designs 4-in-1 features octopus-style adjustable legs that can wrap around a vertical or horizontal bar. You'll never again miss that perfect shot just because you don't have a flat surface to place your phone.

A Perfect Love Triangle

In order for the plane to keep in touch with all four points, it begins to bend, to distort, to lose stability.

Suzy's in love with Jeff, but he's in love with her best friend Anna, who loves him back, but isn't sure whether her love for Jeff is greater or more important than her love for her bestie.

It's a classic love triangle, and it's a tough geometric combination to challenge. It also has a lot to do with tripods.

Mathematically, three legs is enough. You could, I suppose demand, four legs, or even a dozen, but it turns out that it would actually decrease your stability if you added any more legs.

Why is this? Well, you see, it only takes three points to define a plane in basic geometry. I was an English major, so I'm going to employ a little practical experiment here to make my point clear.

Take a piece of paper (the plane) and rest it on the tips of your thumb, index, and middle fingers (the three points). Make small adjustments to the positioning of your fingers and you'll notice that the paper always rests flat on all three points, even as it changes its own orientation.

Now, add a fourth finger to the mix. In order for the plane to keep in touch with all four points, it begins to bend, to distort, to lose stability.

So, when it's time to balance our expensive phones and cameras on something, a good triangle seems like the best bet.

In Defense Of The Selfie

Millennials take a lot of flack for taking selfies.

A now uncountable number of "think pieces" (page fillers for a 24-hour internet news cycle that is forever desperate for hits) has been written on the topic with titles like, Are Selfies Ruining Your Relationships? or 10 Ways Selfies Are Ruining Society.

But that need isn't completely sated by advertising and the media, especially if you're not a young white male.

Very few of these pieces rely on anything more than anecdotal data, statistically anomalous occurrences of death or injury resulting from sheer stupidity, or–my personal favorite–fear of a changing world.

The thinking among large swaths of Generation Xers and older is that the Millennials are self-obsessed, lazy ne'er-do-wells completely and utterly dependent on the technology of their day.

There is, admittedly, some small truth in this. Trends in advertising have locked in on young humanity's need to see ourselves reflected in the pool.

But that need isn't completely sated by advertising and the media, especially if you're not a young white male.

Traditionally, the most elusive and sought-after target of the US consumer market has been 18-24-year-old white males. Funny thing is, that demographic takes far fewer selfies than its female counterpart.

One probable reason for this? Selfies gratify a part of us that seeks representation in media. The only group consistently, overwhelmingly represented in US media from advertising to film and television, is male, almost always white, and between the ages of 18 and 35.

For the rest of the world, selfies are a way to tip the scales of media representation, a way to empower oneself to say, "I'm here, too. I'm a person, and I matter."

Three Legs For A Long Time

While the selfie itself is a relatively recent phenomenon, the tripod goes back at least as far as ancient Greece.

I'm sure not too many people think about it while they're putting their selfie tripod in just the right place, but the oracle at Delphi, named Pythia, sat herself on a three-legged stool when reading into the future and the nature of the universe for Apollo. Mythology is pretty cool like that.

Tripods as we think of them today developed as stabilizing instruments for land survey equipment.

Knowing what we know about the Greeks co-opting a majority of their mathematics from the Persian Empire and Arabic scholars in Egypt, it's pretty safe to assume that the stability of a three-legged seat was known throughout the Middle East for centuries leading up to its recording in Greek literature, pottery, painting, and sculpture.

Tripods as we think of them today developed as stabilizing instruments for land survey equipment. In the middle of the 19th century, photographers took the leveling scope off the surveyor's tripod and replaced it with a large format camera.

Since then, the tripod has been the preferred device for camera stability in still photography and video, though film makers got a new toy in the 70s called the steadycam.

Do you need a $10,000 counterbalance vest for your selfies? I'm going to say no, unequivocally. Would a tripod be nice, though? Absolutely.

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A wandering writer who spends as much time on the road as in front of a laptop screen, Brett can either be found hacking away furiously at the keyboard or, perhaps, enjoying a whiskey and coke on some exotic beach, sometimes both simultaneously, usually with a four-legged companion by his side. He has been a professional chef, a dog trainer, and a travel correspondent for a well-known Southeast Asian guidebook. He also holds a business degree and has spent more time than he cares to admit in boring office jobs. He has an odd obsession for playing with the latest gadgets and working on motorcycles and old Jeeps. His expertise, honed over years of experience, is in the areas of computers, electronics, travel gear, pet products, and kitchen, office and automotive equipment.

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